When Heroes Fall
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· 61 viewsWhat do we do when our heroes fall from grace? How do we pick up the pieces when a role model, or mentor commits a great sin? What do we do when we realize they're only human, and just as broken as we are?
Notes
Transcript
If you will, please turn in your Bibles, or your Bible app, to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12.
While you turn there, I’d like to simply pray once more...
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Intro: This is a message that has been burning in my mind and in my heart for some time now. I believe I lightly touched on this topic several weeks ago, I’m not exactly sure when, but it has since began to snowball and take shape…
In the past few years, we’ve seen the reputation of many pastors smudged, changed, or marred by controversy.
Either due to their own moral failures, a crisis of faith, some chose suicide… and the list seems to grow every week. Bill Hybils, Mark Driscoll, Carl Lentz, Joshua Harris, the list goes on and on.
Specifically, of course, many of you may immediately think to the information concerning Ravi Zacharias - and for me, Ravi was more than just a preacher, more than evangelist, or an apologist to me. He was a hero. I loved the guy. I had no idea what he was doing behind the scenes, how could I? I never even met the man, in person.
How could I know he was a predator, a monster that manipulated and abused women? He had never given any hint - even to those closest to him - of what kind of man he really was.
Despite how much he influenced my life, my ministry, or my approach to the Gospel, or how I teach or preach… never even shook his hand. Maybe that’s why he was a hero, when you get too close to your heroes, you start to see their flaws.
What do we do when our heroes fall?
I’ve asked myself this numerous times over the past month or so.
One podcaster said, “What do you do when your lifeboat springs a leak?” And that struck me. Ravi isn’t my lifeboat… Jesus is. Why does this hurt so much?
The truth is, we were never to put our faith in men, but in Christ. Paul speaks to this in 1 Corinthians, some were saying “I follow Apollos,” others “I follow Peter”, others Paul, and still some said “I follow Christ.”
And, we still do it. We may go to church at Faith Assembly of God in Lisbon, but we’re still ministered to by other churches around the nation, it’s been that way since the church began and only gotten more prominent since the invention of Radio.
I may be your pastor, but I doubt I’m your favorite preacher. And I don’t blame you for that.
Believe me, that’s fine, I have my favorite preachers, too.
I do know that some pastors take that personal. I remember one lady telling my childhood pastor, a man who recently passed away, Glenn Snodgrass, “Brother Snodgrass, you’re a fine preacher, but Benny Hinn is my pastor. I never miss his programs!”
And Pastor Snodgrass said to this little old saint, “That’s perfectly fine. If you’re in the hospital, I’ll be sure and let Benny know to come and pray for you.” Implying, “If I’m not your pastor, I guess I’m off the hook.” And he said it with a laugh, he was a good pastor, please know it was just a joke coming from him.
Because we can’t take it personal, it’s the nature of American Christianity isn’t it? And it’s as much a blessing as it is a curse.
Many of you know my testimony, but there was a time in my Christian walk, as a youth pastor, I wasn’t being fed spiritually. The pastor I worked for, his sermons were light on Scripture and heavy on emotion and manipulation - but we called it the Holy Spirit.
Altar calls that were designed to move a crowd to the front, rather than bring about spiritual growth. I’d leave church feeling more hollow than helped, more empty than when I’d arrived.
But I had an iPod, and I’d listen to “Let My People Think” and “Just Thinking” and everything else RZIM would publish that I could download, I so starved for good, sound, Biblical theology.
And I realize now, that I elevated Ravi Zacharias higher than I should have. I’m not the only one.
He was the voice of reason, Calvinists and Arminians, Amillinialists and Pre-Mils, you name the doctrinal dispute, they could all agree on one thing: Ravi was good people.
Until. He. Wasn’t.
If you’re taking notes, I want to give you something today that, should you ever find yourself wondering what to do when or if your hero should be found out, or fall, that may help you.
Thesis: When our heroes fall, we must lay aside our own sins, look to Jesus, and follow His example.
Thesis: When our heroes fall, we must lay aside our own sins, look to Jesus, and follow His example.
Lay sin aside, look to Jesus, and follow His example.
It’s simple enough - isn’t it? But when the next big name preacher makes headlines for all the wrong reasons… and that’s someone who has spoken into your life, has ministered to your spiritual needs, has put more fire in your heart than you thought possible… it is much easier said than done.
I. Lay Sin Aside
I. Lay Sin Aside
Hebrews 12:1 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses… who were the witnesses mentioned?
The word, “Therefore” is an interesting word in Scripture, and like many preachers say, when we see the word “therefore,” we must understand what it’s “there for.”
Here, it connects us to the previous chapter, Hebrews 11. I won’t read the whole thing, but this is a chapter we often hear people call “Faith’s Hall of Fame.” It’s a list of Old Testament saints, who were all looking towards the coming Messiah, hoping for the day He would arrive on the scene.
We are not to live our lives like them, rather to the One they looked toward.
I’ll explain why, but first, please, permit me to use some hyperbole to make the point this morning as we go through the list:
Abel - he provoked jealousy in his brother, whether intentionally or not (Genesis 4:5)
Enoch - Literally so heavenly focused he was no earthly good (Genesis 5:24)
Noah - gets drunk and curses his own son (Genesis 9:21-27)
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - all men who lied or deceived others at some point in their lives.(Genesis 12:11-12, Genesis 26:7, Genesis 27:20-23)
Joseph - would brag about his dreams to the point his brothers wanted to kill him (Genesis 37:18-19)
Moses - Anger issues cost him the promised land (Deuteronomy 32:48-52)
Rahab - A prostitute (Joshua 2)
Gideon - Set up an idol and caused Israel to sin (Judges 8:27)
Barak - a coward too afraid to fight his own battles (Judges 4:8-9)
Samson - and the sin of his eyes cost him his eyes (Judges 14-16)
Jephthah - who murders his own daughter for a military victory (Judges 11:29-39)
David - the guy who commits a murder to cover up an affair, then tries to make himself out to be the good guy for taking care of his victim’s wife (2 Samuel 11-12)
Samuel the prophet - who raised his sons to be judges, that took bribes and perverted justice. (1 Samuel 8:1-3)
The list goes on but the point is they’re all flawed people. These “Heroes of Faith” all had some great sin or another, even those like Enoch surely had sins he committed.
Solomon - a king famous for his wisdom as much as his sin, his fall from grace - once said “there is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46). Paul reiterates this later in Romans 3:23.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Every single one of these heroes in the Bible has flaws. In fact, and you’ve all heard me say this before, the only person in all of Scripture who has no flaws, they crucified!
So what do we do when such leaders, role models, these mentors or heroes fall or fail us?
Should it be cause for depression? No. It must become a time of reflection.
You know, people mock the “Billy Graham rule”, for men - especially pastors - to not be alone with women who are not their wives, because they’re just being overzealous.
Then we want to scratch our heads and say, “What happened to this famous preacher? What happened to that pastor? What happened to Ravi? Where did they go wrong?”
Was it the fame that got to them? Ravi Zacharias himself used to say the one thing that’ll doom a man is a television camera. That he’d been on talk shows and watched as men and women of God turned into something else entirely when the camera began to roll.
I’m sure there are other factors we will never know. Yet we turn to Scripture and what does it tell us?
“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”
What do these witnesses tell us? Look to our own sins!
We were never meant to have a celebrity pastor to look up to! Paul never sought fame! He said
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,
Does this mean we can not or should not enjoy a sermon from a past preacher, like a Dave Wilkerson or a Leonard Ravenhill? Should we not watch a sermon from another pastor’s YouTube channel?
I’m not saying that. I hope you don’t think I’m suggesting that.
But they are not meant to carry our faith.
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
You know the key word there? The writer says it 3 times. Only two letters. “US”.
Us, not them! We’re surrounded by those witnesses, but we don’t live for them, we must be careful not to turn our heroes into our idols.
Lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely.
You know, I can’t concern myself with the sins of some celebrity preacher, I’ve got my own to see to.
Now, as your pastor, I will say that if I see them misleading you, or preaching a false doctrine, or a heresy, then I will be concerned, that’s literally in the job description of a pastor, to shepherd the people.
I’m not your weekly motivational speaker, I’m here to guide, help, encourage, and in some cases, bring you back into the fold when you’ve strayed or been misled.
And if someone is leading you off the edge of a cliff, it’s my duty to try and stop them.
I had a conversation recently with someone concerning a well-known heretic/celebrity pastor, and I was told, “Don’t look at what they’re preaching, look at the fruit of their ministry.”
But there’s a problem with that logic. Preaching is the main fruit of their ministry. When Paul told Titus God’s word was manifested in his preaching (in Titus 1:3), that meant the content of his preaching.
That’s what matters. Not in the miracles he did, but what he taught.
If we take out what they’re teaching and only look at the crowds they bring in, or the cool stuff that happens at their churches, by the same logic Ozzy Osbourne is a pretty good evangelist.
Lil Nas made the news, recently which most of you have seen or heard of, should we let our kids listen to him? He must be doing something right, since he’s got more twitter followers than Pastor Jeff...
No, I don’t think so. That’s foolish.
We will run our race, and as your pastor, it’s my duty to make sure we all stay on the right track.
But also as we run, we run the race set before us, we all must also look to see how we can help those around us run their race -
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The fact simply is, we are to love others, we are to guide others, but remember we can not run their race for them. We can only help them run theirs. The same as we can’t let someone else run our race for us.
You know, the footrace was one of the longest and most significant events in the Greek games. We see it mentioned at least a couple of times in the New Testament. (see also 2 Timothy 4:7)
They knew what they were talking about in comparing the Christian life to such a thing.
Cast off every sin, every weight, and run your race.
How do we do that? Paul gives us an idea.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Ultimately, he will simplify all of that with
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
It does not matter how good an Old Testament hero was, or how good the preacherman on the TV or YouTube sounds, we can not live our Christianity for them, because of them, or through them.
They will always let you down. So we look to our own sin, we run our own race, and look to Jesus.
II. Look to Jesus
II. Look to Jesus
Hebrews 12:2 begins, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,”
At least 3 different times, the apostle Paul will tell the church, Jesus is always to be our example.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Paul would tell the Corinthian churches,
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
And he would write to the Ephesian Christians,
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We look at Jesus, we look at the model He is for us, and we have to understand that we will never be like Jesus completely, but that is what we strive for.
Jesus never sinned, 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us. We can’t go a whole day without sinning, that’s why there is grace. But
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
We can not strive to be like Christ, we can not even hope to look to Christ, and expect to be the same as the world around us. We should strive to follow His example.
I saw a post recently on social media, whether it was Facebook, or Twitter, I don’t know. It said something like, “I used to wonder what I would do if I had one day left to live, and then I realized Jesus knew, and He washed the feet of the disciples.”
And Jesus said in that moment:
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
When we look to Him, we should also look around us in how to serve others. How to help others. How to bless others.
Not looking to some role model on the television set or YouTube, nor to become one.
And please hear me. I like watching William Lane Craig debate atheists. I love listening to teachings from Mike Winger on YouTube. I enjoy the preaching of Paul Washer. I may disagree with a few things they say or do, but those are guys I enjoy.
But my salvation does not get swayed by whether or not Bill Craig can win a debate Richard Dawkins. My eternity does not get determined by how well Mike Winger exegetes scripture. My relationship with Christ is not dependent upon how passionately Paul Washer preaches.
And I believe all 3 of those men would say, “That’s good to know” because do we realize the responsibility we put on a man or a woman when that’s how we treat them. (Illustration: Trackwells)
No wonder they fall, it’s a wonder more men and women don’t get crushed beneath the pressure of it all.
I’m your pastor, but I can’t live your Christian life for you, I can’t police you. You need to turn to Jesus. You need to know what He taught, what He preached. How else will you know if what I’m giving you is right or wrong?
We need to be like the Bereans in the book of Acts who examine what we’re being taught.
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
Examine it, hold it up to Scripture. If you don’t know Scripture, how can you know the Jesus of Scripture? The Bible points us to Jesus.
[We are Pentecostal, we need Scripture! The gifts take us to Jesus!]
If you have a special revelation, or a divine word, that doesn’t mesh with Scripture, guess what, it’s not from Jesus.
The Holy Spirit will not - and please understand me - the Holy Spirit’s main role is to always lead us to Him. He will not sidetrack you on other things that do not bring glory to Christ.
Jesus said this Himself:
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
If it’s the Holy Spirit, it takes us to Jesus Christ. If it’s not the Jesus of the BIBLE, it’s no doubt “a” spirit, but it’s not the HOLY SPIRIT. Period.
If we don’t know the Jesus of the Scripture, we can’t live like Him, we can’t know Him. Spend some time in those red letters of your Bible and listen to that, rather than seeking another mentor from your phone screen, your TV, or your computer monitor.
And please, please hear me, I’m preaching to myself today as much as anyone. I was devastated by the news of Ravi Zacharias. I read that report about his actions until I couldn’t stomach it anymore.
But never again. The men I’ve named, that I respect them, but they’re not heroes. If they should fall or falter, I will grieve the loss of a brother, but the work goes on, the world keeps turning.
Because I’m focusing on the cross of Christ, and I’ll chase that every day of what’s left of my life. And I hope you’ll make that decision, too.
That means we follow Him.
III. Follow Him
III. Follow Him
Hebrews 12:2b “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”
It because of our looking to Jesus, we are able to follow after Jesus. What we are focusing on, is what we drift towards, if you remember the sermon from a while back, Peter walking on the water. What’s he end up looking at?
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”
You can’t see the wind, but he saw the effects of it. You can’t see “sin” you only see what it does as it’s carried out through people’s lives, their flesh, their lusts, their greed, their anger, and so on.
If we focus on those things, it’s what we drift towards. So we focus on Christ.
Because of what was before Him, Jesus is able to focus on it, and endure the cross. What was waiting on Him? The Father. Being seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
What is before us? The cross of Christ.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
It is because of Jesus, we are able to deny ourselves, cast off those sins, those weights that ensnare us, and chase after Him. Following Him.
What’s interesting is the cross is a thing of shame, a thing that represents brutality, death.
Followers of Jesus have taken something that should be an embarrassment and we say, “But this is what our God did for all of us.”
Picking up our cross means having the endurance to persist in spite of everything it may cost us. In fact, the next verse in Hebrews 12 will say
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
And it’s difficult to endure. It’s hard to resist temptation, by no means do I ever intend to make it sound easy, but it is worth it. The writer of Hebrews goes on:
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
In other words, “if you’re reading this, you haven’t been martyred yet. You haven’t died yet. And even if it comes to that point, we can rejoice, because look at the crowd of witnesses, those flawed people who surround us who also made it.
You understand, God knows we aren’t going to be perfect, He calls us to strive for it. BUT
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
And as we encounter trials, as we encounter the flack we get for being “prudes” or the accusations of being “self-righteous”, and as times continue, perhaps lose our jobs, our homes… our lives… we can still rejoice.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The original readers of the book of Hebrews understood this very thing. They got it. This passage, our main text this morning, was words of encouragement to them.
Chapter 10 tells us
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
They still needed endurance. They needed to hang on.
Those in our Wednesday night Bible study, going through the churches of Revelation - and maybe I’ll do a series next on those churches, I’m praying about it - but each church is told, “To the one who conquers” and they’re given a promised reward.
Even the worst church of the seven is given this word of encouragement, this word of hope.
The word “conquer” comes from the Greek “nikeon”, you have seen this word on tennis shoes all over, the word “nike” is a very similar word, but the tense here is “one who prevails” the one who conquers, who overcomes the hardships of this world.
Paul takes this word, and some scholars believe he creates a new one specifically in Romans 8, when he writes
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
The Greek for “more than conquerors” there is “hypernikeon”, the only time we’ve ever seen it used like this is here in Romans 8. “HyperNikeon” means to be a “complete conqueror”, to have “overwhelming victory”.
God doesn’t make losers, He takes losers, and He makes them champions of faith.
That’s what He did with Abel and Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David and Samuel.
God loves the misfit, the unwanted, the unloved, and He says “Follow me, and I’m going to change your life.” The same God who sees a shepherd, but calls him to be a king, is the same God who saw a fisherman and said, “I’m gonna make this guy an apostle of My Son.”
He still takes regular people, and calls them to do irregular things.
He may not call you to do “Big” things but that doesn’t mean He hasn’t called you to do great things. If only we follow Him.
I heard a minister say recently, one of the most glorious ministries you can ever have is doing your job every day, being faithful to your spouse, and sharing Jesus with anyone who will listen.
But we get it flip-flopped. We see someone do that, and we say they settled.
If you ask me, some of the greatest preachers, you’ve never heard of. They’ve pastored the same church of 50-70 people for 30 years. But we want the guy who speaks at the conference...
Let me ask you something.
If God planted a beautiful rose, the most beautiful flower deep in a woods, where no man, beast, nor angel would ever tread, is that a wasted beauty?
Let me tell you it’s not. Because it’s there, being beautiful, for God’s enjoyment.
I don’t need to be a hero, please don’t anybody think I want that for myself. If I never speak at a conference, if nobody outside Ransom County knows who I am, but everyone in Ransom County knows there’s a church in Lisbon that loves them, and they’ve got a pastor who isn’t afraid to preach God’s word, and I love Jesus, been faithful to my wife, then I’ll tell you what, I’ve lived a good life and I’m gonna be ready to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
But we get it flip-flopped…
And, when our heroes fall, we don’t need to look with our faces to the ground, we need to rise up and point our faces to the cross of Christ.
Be that beautiful flower, living for God’s glory, for Him alone.
And let God change us, shape us, mold us, and use us where He has planted us.
If we want to follow Christ, it will never be easy, it may not be glamorous, it will take endurance, as we look to Him, cast off our sins that ensnare and weigh us down, but looking to Him and chasing Him is worth every single step we take.
Conclusion:
As we move to close this morning, I want to challenge you, not to look for heroes to follow, look for men and women who lead you closer to Christ.
You know, life is not social media - most of my Facebook friends, I don’t even have their number in my cell phone. That’s not really a friend. Most of the people I “follow” on Twitter, I would not ask for life advice.
WE must cast off what hinders US, and run OUR Race. Looking to Jesus, and following after Him.
No, that’s not easy.
AW Tozer once said, “God cannot use a man or woman greatly until He wounds them deeply.”
When you read Hebrews 11, we see that to be true, but more than anything we have to ask has our heart been hurt for Christ. Has our heart been wounded by what ensnares us, what keeps us from a more intimate relationship with Him?
Does our sin break our own hearts and drive us to Jesus? Does it push us to run our race better as we learn from our own failures?
I want to leave you with one last thought this morning...
Maybe your mom or your dad was your greatest hero, their faith can not save you. It has to be yours, it has to be personal. It has to be your eyes on the Savior, or you’ll miss Him when He speaks to you.
I went to Bible college with a guy from South Dakota, his dad was a big name pastor, presbyter or something. We used to always get into theological debates, and he’d always say, “Well, my dad always says [then fill in the blank].”
The only problem was, I wasn’t from South Dakota. I grew up in Illinois. I never cared what his dad said about anything - I still don’t. So that wasn’t much of a trump card in those discussions, was it?
When sin rises up, when the enemy comes at you, when the pressures of this world encompasses you, believe me, it won’t matter what your hero says or who they are.
Heroes fall.
It will only matter what your Savior has done.
I’m going to move to close this morning, and there’s no formal altar call, if you would like prayer for something, for anything, we’re always happy to pray with you.
But today, take the challenge with you. Question who your hero is, and if they fell, would Jesus still be your King?
PRAY